Matt Koehl’s Unique Contribution to National Socialist Thought: Forward to a New Aryan Dawn

This is a slightly edited and expanded text of the remarks made by NEW ORDER Chief of Staff Martin Kerr at the Matt Koehl Memorial Meeting held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 2017, marking the third anniversary of his death.

by Martin Kerr

NATIONAL SOCIALIST Comrades: We are gathered here to honor the memory of our departed commander, Matt Koehl. But first let me say a few words about his predecessor, Commander Rockwell.

It has been 50 years since the death of George Lincoln Rockwell. Enough time has now elapsed for us to view his life and works with some perspective.

This evening I don’t want to discuss Commander Rockwell’s deeds as a man of action. Those should be well-known to everyone here. Rather, I want to mention his primary contribution to National Socialist theory. For as well as a man of action with a warrior’s heart, he was also a man of intellect who possessed penetrating insights.

In the pre-1945 conception of National Socialism — which was Adolf Hitler’s conception — it is the Nation that stands at the center of the National Socialist thought-world. Race provides the underlying biological foundation for the Nation, and the Folk is a subdivision of the Race. The Nation is the political embodiment of the Folk.

So, that while Race is of fundamental significance, in the arena of practical politics the primary emphasis or focus is on the Nation.

George Lincoln Rockwell turned this around. In Rockwell’s conception of National Socialism, Race is primary, and the Nation recedes into the background.

It is not that one man was right and the other one was wrong, but rather that the world was a different place after 1945 than it was before it, and that consequently a different theoretical model applied.

Our conception of National Socialism today, as an international, worldwide pan-Aryan movement that supersedes 19th century nationalism, is entirely due to George Lincoln Rockwell. In the future, when historians write an account of the evolution of National Socialist thought, this is for what Commander Rockwell will be remembered.

* * *

But what will Matt Koehl be remembered for in terms of the development of National Socialist thought? It has been only three short years since his death, and we lack the perspective of a half-century that we enjoy in the case of Commander Rockwell.

Some may say that his decision to change the focus of the Movement from a political orientation to the spiritual orientation was his main contribution. And perhaps this is what he will be remembered for the most. But the idea of an Hitlerian religion is not original to Matt Koehl. In this he was preceded by others such as Savitri Devi, Miguel Serrano and James Larratt Battersby. So, this was not unique on his part.

But there is one major contribution on Matt Koehl’s part which is both original and crucial. If you read the writings and speeches of the pre-1945 National Socialists, you will notice that they speak in terms of “defending Western Civilization.” They consider the welfare and existence of the White or European race to be equivalent to that of the West. They see no space between them. And for his part, Commander Rockwell spoke about not just defending the West, but also of reviving the constitutional republic bequeathed us by the Founding Fathers.

But Matt Koehl had a deeper, more penetrating insight. Standing on the shoulders of giants, he could see further than they could. He perceived that the idea of reviving the dying West was an illusion. One cannot turn back time. Rather, Commander Koehl realized, the organic, realistic direction for the Movement was not backwards, but forward to a new Aryan dawn.

The forces of racial and social decay are so advanced and powerful, and the momentum that they have achieved is so great, that attempting to stop them and reverse them in their tracks is an exercise in futility, the Commander realized. As tragic as it may be, the West is doomed, and the America of the past is doomed with it.

But does that mean that our struggle as National Socialists is pointless, or that our lives as individual Aryans are without meaning? No, said the Commander, for as long as there is life there is hope.

* * *

Instead of vainly trying to hold back the inexorable tide of history — instead of trying to rescue that which cannot be rescued; to save that which cannot be saved; to purify that which cannot be purified — we must push forward though the long night of the death of the West to a new daybreak, to a new post-Western Aryan civilization.

For Matt Koehl recognized that what is most important is the survival of our bloodline, not the external trappings of the civilization that our race has created over the last millennium. We can always erect new buildings, sculpt new statues, devise new technologies, compose new music and write new poems and novels — but once our bloodline has been extinguished, it will be gone permanently. As the saying goes, extinction is forever.

In 1983, the Commander dissolved the National Socialist White Peoples Party, which was geared towards mass political action for success within the existing status quo — within the Old Order. In its place he formed the NEW ORDER, as a racial lifeboat for those strong enough to survive the hastening and inevitable collapse of the West.

In his 1980 essay, “The Revolutionary Nature of National Socialism,” he wrote:

At this late date, nothing can be restored. Therefore, our task does not consist of going back to anything or in bringing back another age. It does not lie in resuscitating a decadent and dying civilization, or in preserving a corrupt system, or in changing or modifying it.

Our historic task as National Socialist revolutionaries is, quite simply, to start all over again — tabula rasa with a new vision and a new outlook and a new will to create upon this earth a new order and a new culture as a wonderful testament to immortal Aryan genius. That is our mission, and nothing else.

The breadth and depth of the Commander’s vision has not yet been fully appreciated, even among many of those who define themselves as pro-White.

But in the Aryan future to come, the clarity, the courage and the brilliance of his insights will be well-appreciated. Indeed, they will be accepted as self-obvious truisms by all intelligent White men and women.

And when that day comes, Matt Koehl will receive the full honor that he deserves as an original National Socialist thinker.

* * *

Source: NEW ORDER